Review: Running Wild at Wycombe Swan

The lush rainforest of Indonesia came to High Wycombe last night (Thursday), bringing with it a buffoonery of orangutans (their official collective noun!) a tiger, a lost girl and a runaway elephant.

Based on kids’ writer Michael Morpurgo’s book and brought to the stage by Timothy Sheader and Dale Rooks, the story starts with an English family on holiday in Indonesia.

Football mad Lilly is enjoying an elephant ride on the beach when the animal – Oona – becomes increasingly agitated, breaks away from her mahout and makes for the rainforest, with a terrified Lilly still on her back.

But Oona had good reason to fret and run - shortly after the beach’s visitors – Lilly’s mum included - are engulfed in a devastating tsunami wave.

Back in the jungle Lilly must learn to communicate with her pachyderm friend – not least to help her reach fruit from the trees and protect her from a hungry tiger. Of course Lilly finds her feet, and it’s not long before she’s befriended a group of gorgeous orangutans.

And then the poachers arrive…

As ever with Morpurgo stories there’s a social message: Indonesia’s forest and its inhabitants are under threat from those who seek to make a buck out of the West’s insatiable desire for palm oil and exotic pets. This it delivers loud and clear.

Young Annika Whiston gives a gutsy performance as Lilly, but of course the real highlight of the show is the magnificent puppets. Oona the life-size elephant requires four people to manoeuvre her, and yet she is so, well, elephant like. It’s the same with the other animals – although they are worked by world-class ‘War Horse’ puppeteers, you truly believe there are wild animals on stage.

My little guests loved the show – and are now banning anything with palm oil from entering the house.

Running Wild will be at the Wycombe Swan until tomorrow (Saturday, March 18). Call the box office on 01494 512000.